It has taken several months to arrive, but Google has finally released the first beta of its content identification tool for YouTube videos. The idea behind the tool is to quickly identify and deal with copyright material posted to the video site.

Google officially confirmed the plans to implement the anti-piracy tool back in July, but had already been working on a solution for months. The reason for such a tool being developed was to ensure content providers’ fears over piracy on the site were dispelled and to ensure no further lawsuits, such as the one Viacom is currently pursuing, can happen in the future (see our previous coverage).

The official name for the tool is YouTube Video Identification and works through a combination of information provided by content owners and checks performed on the video posted by Google software. In order for the system to work, content providers have to provide detailed information about content in order to form a digital fingerprint. The tool then uses this fingerprint to check newly posted videos. If a match is found, then the video in question is either removed, or the content owners can choose to promote it instead.

YouTube product manager David King and development manager Glenn Brown posted a statement regarding the new tool, saying:

We expect to hit unforeseen bumps and bottlenecks as we refine, improve, and scale the system to meet everyone’s needs … We have worked with Google to develop one-of-a-kind technology that can recognize videos based on a variety of factors … Video Identification is brand-new, cutting-edge stuff. Early tests with content companies have shown very promising results.

I think the way that Google has tackled this problem is very intelligent, since it does not put the emphasis just on it to spot all the infringing content. The system relies on content owners providing information about their wares and then acting on any problem videos themselves. By doing this, Google can take diminished responsibility while still providing a solution.

There are always going to be issues with such a system, but if the information provided about the content is accurate, then it should cut the amount of videos that infringe without the knowledge of the content owners. It will be interesting to see how companies similar to Viacom react to the measures, since it makes more work for them, but does address the issues they are worried about.